Quest Page

A barely standing Samuel waited with bated breath to see if his attack succeeded. He was very close to passing out, but kept standing with sheer grit and determination. 'The attack definitely landed, but will it be enough?'

'You have passed the final test, gaining our preliminary recognition. You will be sent back to your reality, together with the girl, only to return when you have reached the Transcendence stage. Be mindful of the fact that she is currently passed out and of the complications it might cause upon your return. We expect great things from you, Samuel.'

A dizzying feeling took hold of him, making Samuel lose the final control he had over his body, causing him to finally get some rest. Both Samuel and Sylvia arrived back in the interrogation room, looking the same as when they left, but the feeling they gave off was different. Sylvia's aura was very faint, almost old, while Samuel's was stronger, yet also much fainter than it was when he first got here.

The celestial bodies in the sky changed positions as time passed, and soon the sun had risen twice after Lady White began her treatment of Samuel, yet no sound had been produced from the room they were in. As silent as the dead of night, the room stayed completely still, with both the doctor and patient sleeping soundly. General Calching has been quite tense for the past two days. Not only did he feel guilty towards Samuel, but he was also nervous that something might have happened to Lady White; such a situation was unprecedented throughout his entire career. He had never experienced something like this before. Calching did not dare enter the room either, as she gave strict instructions to leave them alone and said that she would call for him when she was done. Nevertheless, the effect of Pathetic had taken a truly great hold over the general, making his every waking moment a tense nightmare. 'Please come out today!'

While Calching was pacing back and forth outside the room, Samuel's eyelids fluttered before opening to reveal his cosmic, nightmarish, devilish silver and black eyes. Samuel had apparently been asleep for two days, but he did not seem to carry any of the confusion typical for such a situation; he appeared very calm.

Ding!

[Congratulations on succeeding in the Trial of Malataincacha!]

[You have awakened the Malataincacha Technique and completed your first quest.]

[Tabulating rewards…]

[Rewards tabulated]

[The quest was to defeat someone three cultivation stages above your own. The rewards are 10,000 system points, the removal of ten talent locks, and the quest page.]

Amongst the rest of the system pages, there was now a [Quest] option to be selected. Samuel was reeling at the rewards he received, but also not. The rewards were great, truly great, but the problem was that these were for defeating someone at the Enlightenment stage while he was at the Superior Mortal stage. What kind of rewards would he receive for doing quests at his level? Breadcrumbs? 

'Is this what it meant with "everything distributed to you by the system will be much more difficult to acquire?" Damn, that sucks. It seems I actually have to be careful not to waste system points. Although the Malataincacha protection was not a waste, it easily could have been; I can't get easily deceived by flashy things in the shop!'

Steeling his resolve as a man who did not like to shop, Samuel decided to grit his teeth and open the dreaded quest page.

[Welcome to the Quest page! This is the place where you can select and collect your quests. All quests will have a difficulty ranking, which decides the amount of rewards, all of which will be showcased on the quests themselves. Some quests have a time limit, meaning that if you miss the chance to complete them, the chance will be gone forever. Good luck!]

[Important: Quests can be open or hidden. Here you can only see the open quests distributed actively by the system; the hidden ones are more obscure and of unknown origin.]

[Mortal]

[Superior Mortal]

[Mortal Evolution]

[True Cultivation]

[New! Enlightenment]

[Locked! Transcendence]

[Locked Heavenly/Chaos Monarch]

'Wow! It actually revealed the name of the stage after the Transcendence stage. Even Mike could not tell me about things like that, yet the system casually did so, seemingly without reason. No matter, let me check out the viable quests first.]

[Superior Mortal]

[Moral] [Neutral] [Immoral]

'Oh, there is even such a divide on the quests. How nice. Moral, please.'

[Moral]

[New Hero]

[Protect the Gialfin kingdom and erase the scourge the Blinded Bloodsucker from the face of the realm.]

[Difficulty: Very Easy.]

[Time limit: two months for arrival and three months for completion.]

[Rewards: 100 system points or something of similar value from the system shop.]

"..."

'Are you serious? I have to protect a kingdom from this thing and then kill it, meaning it is obviously quite powerful, yet I only receive 100 system points? This is daylight robbery!'

[Protector of the Innocents]

[There are thousands of bandit nests spread throughout the Shattered Realm, and all of them should cease to exist. Annihilate 1,000 bandit nests at the Mortal stage and 100 at the Superior Mortal stage.]

[Important: All members of the nests have to be killed (including children), or it won't count.]

[There is no time limit.]

[Difficulty: Tedious.]

[Rewards: one system point for each Mortal nest and ten for each Superior Mortal nest. The rewards will only be distributed upon the completion of the quest.]

'Two things: 1. how is this a moral quest when it purposefully states I have to kill children, and 2. how can the rewards be so pitiful? It is one thing to have such rewards for the first mission, but this one, which even the system calls tedious, is still only 2,000 for a whole lot of my time. Never in my life have I ever encountered such a money grubber quite like the system, and that includes myself! Whatever, I will scroll through all the missions and see if I can find anything.'

And so Samuel did. Not only did he scroll through the Superior Mortal tab, but also the True Cultivation and the Enlightenment ones. He refused to check out the neutral and immoral quests for now, as they didn't sit right with him yet. Causing him to, all in all, only find five quests he could think about completing, with the right motivation from the system shop, of course.

They are:

[Superior Mortal]

[Repay Your Debts]

[Quell the unruly forces in the capital of the Lokola Empire using whatever means you find necessary.]

[Time limit: five months]

[Difficulty: Very Easy/Demon]

[Note: This is a split mission that can be done in multiple ways, meaning the rewards are a combination of the two difficulties.]

[Rewards: 10,000 system points, unlocking the Lucky Wheel function, one spin of the Wheel of Pain and Happiness, and a random dungeon key]

…

[True Cultivation]

[Inquisitive Blade of Justice]

[The nights are long, and they harbor the wretched supporters of the void, wishing damnation and destruction upon all of creation. Decimate the base of the Witnesses of Azathoth, located in the Lake of Madness.]

[Time limit: three years.]

[Rewards: The Pearl of Void Gazing and the Experiences of a Voidborne]

[Realm Benefactor]

[The shattered realm lacks powerful techniques that do not contain any damning flaws. Create a technique at the True Cultivation stage that is perfect and can be used by anyone with a minimum level of comprehension of the human body.]

[Time limit: before your ascension]

[Difficulty is indeterminate.]

[Note: the rewards will decrease the higher your cultivation stage becomes.]

[Rewards: 1,000 system points, one Garden of Doom key, and the Mirror of Omniscience (locked)]

[Vile Spawn]

[In the darkest depths of the wretched city of Akar, there lies something best forgotten by time itself, yet it is close to achieving the beginning of the end of the Shattered Realm. Seal the soul and body of Mashtolikan, the Cursed Reaper, before it is too late.]

[Time limit: 761 days, 13 hours, and 26 minutes before it revives]

[Difficulty: Hard/Demon/Void]

[Note: This is a split mission that can be done in multiple ways, meaning the rewards are a combination of the three difficulties.]

[Rewards: Removal of 100 talent locks, 100,000 system points, the Fool's Clock, the Calendar of Regret, and the innate ability Reaper's Grasp.]

…

[Enlightenment]

[Scourge of the Realm]

[The shadow organizations have been running rampant ever since the Overlord Sect stopped meddling in the affairs of the realm. If they won't do something, someone else has to. Uproot the collective known as the Shadow's Origin, the core of shady organizations in the Shattered Realm.]

[There is no time limit.]

[Difficulty: Demon]

[Note: the rewards will decrease the higher your cultivation stage becomes.]

[Rewards: The Diary of Justice, The Memento of Injustice, and the True Gift of Karma]

…

Samuel basically chose all the tasks that he was confident in maybe clearing, but also had really generous rewards. Never mind the system points, Samuel realized even the artifacts he received upon leveling up in the past were now only being given out as rewards instead of for free like before. He was sure that even if he was unable to complete the missions for those items, they would not be locked to him forever, but he was not really willing to take the chance. As such, he was fairly certain he would be completing all the missions he set aside, especially the [Vile Spawn] one. Not only were the rewards very generous, but if he completed the mission within a little more than two years, he should be easily able to succeed. Plus, that Cursed Reaper sounded hella dangerous and definitely not like something he would want wandering the Shattered Realm. What confused Samuel, however, was the fact that he did not sense such an entity back before the reset, meaning it was a new entity. He realized things might not be like they were before at all, making him slightly nervous as he remembered the chaotica's nest not far from the Shattered Realm. 'What if it is closer this time? The entire realm would be destroyed and devoured in a matter of minutes! I have to get powerful, and I have to get powerful quickly enough. I refuse to die to some bastard creatures I have killed before! I would be laughed out of the afterlife.'

Samuel was about to enter the system shop to see if any of the things inside could catch his fancy, but before he could, Sylvia rustled awake across the table from him. Oh right. He actually forgot that he was still covered in her carpet. He didn't even notice! No, there was no way he could let her see he was awake, still covered by the carpet like some idiot. He also did not forget to lock the effect of the Pathetic achievement out of fear for how he would be treated if he didn't. Samuel, the most talented actor in all of Infinity, instantly managed to perfectly look as if he were asleep.

"Kid, you have some explaining to do. Hmm? Is he still asleep? Well, it does make sense, as he is much weaker than me. It's nothing to be shocked about after all."

Struggling, but ultimately failing, to keep his lips from twitching, Samuel was about to burst. He just defeated her! How dare she say he is weaker than her? Sure, it was pure luck, and he would never be able to do it again, but she didn't know that. The balls on her!

"I knew you were pretending, Samuel. You can't trick the master trickster, Sylvia White!"

Samuel: "..."